Buying/Selling a Business

Do you find it hard to start a new business from scratch? Well you might not be out of options just yet. Sometimes buying and managing an already established company is the best way to go. There are amazing opportunities especially on the online platform these days. You only need to know where to look to get the perfect business. Let’s look at the top 5 sites to find businesses for sale below:

Today, this site has a list of at least 62,000 businesses both in the US and worldwide. The website allows users to filter their search to specific preferences like locations and business sector. Its services directory will also assist you to get specialized services for your newly acquired business. Here is one woman’s experience with BusinessesForSale.com.

Here you can search for your preferred franchises and businesses by industry and location. However, if you decide to sell your business later, it also offers great perks. This website allows you to post an ad within a mere five minutes. BizQuest.com contains a whole lot of interesting functionalities that you need to explore.

This site not only offers users with business options but also provides them with financial assistance. With over 100,000 listings, it considers itself the largest business-for-sale online market. It also offers a variety of search filters for both buyers and sellers of businesses. You can even set the lowest or highest price in your search.

With almost a million business listings, LoopNet.com is one of the most reliable business-for-sale sites. Aside from its friendly desktop interface, you can also have it as an app in your phone or tablet. LoopNet.com is also partners with commercial real estate companies such as Sperry Van Ness, Century 21 and CBRE. You can also use this website to list your business among others being sold. With its information on market trends and comparisons, this site literally spoon-feeds its users.

If you are looking for a place to post your business ads for free as a seller, MergerNetwork.com is the place for you. It has over 15000 listings of businesses for sale worldwide. It allows users to specify search preferences such as locations and industry. It basically connects business brokers, investment bankers and entrepreneurs to sellers.

The list of businesses for sale doesn’t end here, as there is a huge variety available. Before purchasing or selling a business using these sites, you need to examine your budget and entrepreneurial goals.

Top 5 Sites to Find Businesses for Sale was last modified: February 1st, 2017 by Amanda White

It is crucial that you do due diligence before you buy a business. What is due diligence? Well, this refers to viewing and reviewing, checking and counter checking of all available information related to the business you want to buy. The primary goal is to get an overview of what to expect as pertains all legal and financial factors. This ensures that you do not get into a trap that will result in either legal or financial difficulty in future just in case you decide to go through with your purchase. By digging deeper, you can unearth some issues and address them in advance before you can settle down to serious business. And yes, in order to do a thorough due diligence, you might need to involve your accountant, business banker and in some cases an attorney.

Due diligence should address the following factors:

1. The finances

To get an overview of the financial state of the business, you need to ask for audited financial statements. You might also ask for income statements, balance sheets, tax returns as well as the cash flow statements. After you have a look at these documents, you need to consult your accountant and determine whether the business is in debt or not, whether it is paying the debts, the business program margin as well as its profit margin.

2. Legal situation

This is the second factor that you need to consider when conducting a due diligence. You need to ask for the business’ consulting and professional agreements such as insurance policies, licenses, permits, documents for intellectual property and any documents for lawsuits. You should then employ services of your business attorney to review how these legal factors affect the business now and also in future.

3. The employees

Of course, when you buy a business, you do not come with your own employees. For that reason, you need to ask for details of the employees, their handbooks, their agreements, salary information and organizational charts. You should then review these details with the help of your attorney and determine how they affect the operations of the business.

4. The structure

This is yet another aspect you need to keenly look into. You need to ask for the business’ corporate charter or any bylaws as well as the minutes of the meetings held in the business. Have these details reviewed by your attorney in order to determine how the structure affects normal operations of the business. This way, you will have a clear picture of what you are dealing with.

In a nutshell, for you to be able to buy and run a business smoothly, due diligence is paramount. Armed with this information, you can easily buy a business and manage it effectively.

Do Your Due Diligence Before Buying a Business was last modified: February 1st, 2017 by Amanda White